Under state law that dates to Prohibition, it's illegal for a boutique winery in Napa to send a bottle of its finest to a connoisseur living in Maryland. Why is this still on the books? Chiefly because allowing direct sales to consumers threatens the long-standing monopoly held by wholesalers.

Oh, the middlemen may claim that letting wineries ship to consumers would encourage underage drinking, but that's just not true. More than two-thirds of states allow direct shipments, and it's easy enough to make sure the deliveries are signed by someone age 21 and older.

Wholesalers also fret that direct sales would cause great harm to their livelihood, but that's not true either. Nationwide, direct sales account for less than 5 percent of wine purchases. It's mostly a niche market involving small, family-owned wineries and limited production.

It's time state lawmakers got rid of this archaic restriction that denies Maryland residents the chance to sample the great and even the passable wines that can't be found in the neighborhood liquor store. As Thomas Jefferson once observed well before the Internet age, "Good wine is a necessity of life."